U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmarks: Q1 2021
NREL has been modeling U.S. solar photovoltaic (PV) system costs since 2009. This year, our report benchmarks costs of U.S. PV for residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems, with and without storage, built in the first quarter of 2021 (Q1 2021). The methodology includes bottom-up accounting for all system and project-development costs incurred when installing residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems and it models the capital costs and levelized cost of energy for such systems.
Citation Formats
TY - DATA
AB - NREL has been modeling U.S. solar photovoltaic (PV) system costs since 2009. This year, our report benchmarks costs of U.S. PV for residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems, with and without storage, built in the first quarter of 2021 (Q1 2021). The methodology includes bottom-up accounting for all system and project-development costs incurred when installing residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems and it models the capital costs and levelized cost of energy for such systems.
AU - Ramasamy, Vignesh
A2 - Feldman, David
DB - Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI)
DP - Open EI | National Laboratory of the Rockies
DO -
KW - PV
KW - solar
KW - battery energy storage
KW - capital cost
KW - bottom-up cost model
KW - cost analysis
KW - utility-scale solar
KW - commercial
KW - Residential Solar
LA - English
DA - 2021/11/08
PY - 2021
PB - National Renewable Energy Laboratory
T1 - U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmarks: Q1 2021
UR - https://data.openei.org/submissions/8234
ER -
Ramasamy, Vignesh, and David Feldman. U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmarks: Q1 2021. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 8 November, 2021, NREL. https://data.nlr.gov/submissions/179.
Ramasamy, V., & Feldman, D. (2021). U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmarks: Q1 2021. [Data set]. NREL. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. https://data.nlr.gov/submissions/179
Ramasamy, Vignesh and David Feldman. U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmarks: Q1 2021. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, November, 8, 2021. Distributed by NREL. https://data.nlr.gov/submissions/179
@misc{OEDI_Dataset_8234,
title = {U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmarks: Q1 2021},
author = {Ramasamy, Vignesh and Feldman, David},
abstractNote = {NREL has been modeling U.S. solar photovoltaic (PV) system costs since 2009. This year, our report benchmarks costs of U.S. PV for residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems, with and without storage, built in the first quarter of 2021 (Q1 2021). The methodology includes bottom-up accounting for all system and project-development costs incurred when installing residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems and it models the capital costs and levelized cost of energy for such systems.},
url = {https://data.nlr.gov/submissions/179},
year = {2021},
howpublished = {NREL, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, https://data.nlr.gov/submissions/179},
note = {Accessed: 2026-07-07}
}
Details
Data from Nov 8, 2021
Last updated May 22, 2026
Submitted Nov 8, 2021
Organization
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Contact
Vignesh Ramasamy
Authors
Original Source
https://data.nlr.gov/submissions/179Research Areas
Keywords
PV, solar, battery energy storage, capital cost, bottom-up cost model, cost analysis, utility-scale solar, commercial, Residential SolarDOE Project Details
Project Name System-Level Capital Costs Modeling and Technology Tracking
Project Number FY19 AOP 5.2.0.3
